We moved onwards a bit more cautiously than before. I was trying to get used to the weight of the bracers I wore, and the others were trying to spot any potential ambushes before we tripped them. My radar sense ability was useful, but only reached so far. I felt the wind shift and the scent of greenery followed in its wake.

“We should be close to the park if the scent is traveling that well,” Arya said.

“We heard something big and nasty from that direction earlier. I haven’t heard anything since then though,” Jerome replied.

“I would hazard a guess that we should find out soon. I can see trees poking above the roofline over there,” Jacob said while pointing.

Following the line of his hand I too saw the tips of trees over the roof of a two story colonial style house. The trees themselves were a bit varied, and as I got a better look between the gaps in the structures I saw that they, like the buildings, were from various places and time periods. A long mournful howl split the air and we all froze where we stood. Rebecca’s mental voice had a tinge of fear as she said, “Please tell me we have red cloaks with us.”

“No, but at least we don’t have red shirts,” Jerome responded.

I looked down at my blood stained shirt and let out a mental, “Umm, you sure about that.”

After a short wave of mental laughter from the group we started moving again. The houses stopped and across a wide road was a wooden bridge and cobblestone path that led into the miniature forest. I couldn’t detect any movement at the bridge, but still let Jerome take the lead in case there was an ambush at the bridge. As he moved forward Jacob asked, “What do you think we will face in there?”

“It depends on whether or not there is another of the castle residents in there or not. When we found Thanatos he was captured by a guy using undead minions. Time and Fate are a bit more nebulous in their descriptions though,” I replied.

“Five bucks on the boss for Fate being some kind of spider thing,” Rebecca said with a shudder.

Jerome waved an all clear and we advanced into the park, all the while bouncing potential ideas off each other as well as how we could combat them. None of it prepared us for what we found as we reached the center of the park. In the clearing we found a fountain shaped like an hourglass, water running down onto the head of an old man in a tan trench coat. His golden eyes glared at the creature that prowled around the fountain.

“The creators of this game are sick and twisted sadists,” I said.

There, stomping through the wreckage of robotic soldiers and the corpses of large wolves was what could only be described as a cyborg dinosaur. It stood, slightly hunched over, about fourteen feet long from snout to the base of its tail, with greenish grey leathery skin, long four clawed hands, powerful legs, and a spiked tail. Then there was what looked like cybernetic upgrades all over it, from the shoulder mounted gun, to the ocular mask, and armor plating in critical areas.

“Think we can just free the old man and not have to deal with it?” Arya asked.

“No, look at the base of the fountain. See those metal boxes that surround it? Those are emitting some kind of force field,” I said, after confirming my suspicion with a quick analysis of the dino-borg I continued, “Scales there is giving off the same kind of force field from his arms, like a shield rather than a full barrier. Jacob might be able to break it down but unless it’s instant we will need to fight.”

The shield stood out clearly in my kinetic sense and was shaped like a large scale with the point over the back of the creature’s clawed hand. “Arya, how intelligent is this thing?” I asked.

“I’m guessing not very; I’m not getting coherent words from its thoughts. That might be because it has robotic upgrades or the fact that it isn’t remotely human-like,” she answered.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Rebecca interjected, “Wind is shifting; it’s going to smell us soon. Tank and spank?”

Tank and spank was gamer slang for having the tank, in this case Jerome with his defensive focus, try and hold its attention while the rest of us focused on doing damage as fast as possible to bring it down. Rapid confirmations came from the group but I added, “I don’t see an ammo bin for that gun so I won’t be able to stop shots from it if they are energy based.”

As the thing stopped prowling around and rose its head to sniff the air Jerome broke the cover of the tree line and rushed it like a football player rushing a quarterback. It spread its scaly hands ready to grab Jerome and gave a prehistoric roar as it recognized a challenge.

I was more surprised by Jerome’s opening gambit; as he got closer to scaly he brought his foot down harder than was needed to propel himself, and a shockwave traveled along the ground like a miniature earthquake. Scaly momentarily without proper balance as his footing was disrupted which gave Jerome the chance to throw a vicious left-handed punch into the things snout. Blue blood sprayed as the punch landed, but I saw that while the physical body was affected by the attack, the shoulder mounted cannon altered trajectory like the old Predator movies to take aim at Jerome.

Deciding that he had established himself as the threat sufficiently I stepped from cover and launched one of my new metal spikes at the gun. It sped through the air and hit the gun right as it started to fire altering the aim enough that it only scorched Jerome’s shoulder with a pulse of energy as it blasted into the ground beyond him. A flash of white blue flew past my shoulder and I saw an arrow of ice pierce the creatures hide near the gun. A quick glance showed me Rebecca standing to my left, a bow made of ice in her hands with another arrow knocked and being drawn. Damn her ability was flexible, she hadn’t mentioned a bow before in the items she could create but considering we knew we could evolve our skills through knowledge it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

My kinetic sense showed me Jacob kneeling with some scavenged electronics while rapidly conjuring different tools and assembling something; while he did this Arya was focused on the battlefield and judging by the grimace on her face feeling pretty useless. Both of their abilities were support oriented, and neither had the same offensive capability we did. I sent her a quick mental message, “Focus on keeping us informed of what he’s doing. If he has a special technique we need to be able to react.”

She nodded and I pushed closer to the boss with my enhanced mobility. If Rebecca was staying at range suspected she wasn’t sure her armor could handle this things offensive ability; my own mobility and defenses should help keep me covered if Jerome lost its attention. Jerome was unleashing a flurry of punches, which old scaly was blocking with his forearm barriers as I rushed forward, a motion of my hands making the blades Jacob had made me lock into place for use.

Inspiration struck as I rushed my opponent, and instead of driving the blade in a strike that would require me to stop I kept my arm stead and let the edge of my right hand blade drag along the scaled side of the thing as I kept going past. The results were a little less than I was hoping, while there was now a cut in its side, it wasn’t very deep; but the motion had taken me out of the counter attack it had attempted, which opened up its right side to another icy arrow from Rebecca.

Minutes passed in the fight, with Jerome taking hits from the creature without an issue, other than his clothing getting a little ragged, and Arya managing to warn us before the gun fired based on my kinetic sense. The fight really did fall under the tank and spank description since Jerome was too tough for it to injure, and while it was strong as well we could still hurt it. Scaly was starting to slow, and I saw Jacob carrying some kind of device toward the rapidly filling hourglass. A few more attacks from our three offensive team members saw the boss falling to the ground unmoving and Arya said, “All thoughts have ceased, I’m pretty sure it’s dead. Jacob, what do you have there?”

“Localized EMP, I am attempting to short circuit the barrier so we can get the old man out,” he responded.

A sharp snap, the smell of ozone, and a flash of actinic light and I could sense the fountain, and the vibrations against it as the water poured in. Jerome didn’t hesitate and sent an increased density punch into the side of it, shattering the glass-like substance and allowing the water to pour out. The man in the trench coat stepped out with a nod to Jerome and said to the rest of us in a British accent, “Good show, but did any of you bring a towel?”

I shrugged and said, “I don’t think so, we didn’t get to bring much with us.”

“Lad, never leave home without a towel. People will think you’re uncultured if you don’t bring one,” he responded.

I looked at him puzzled, even more so when I heard a pair of groans from Arya and Jacob. Must be a joke I didn’t get. The old man shrugged and I saw his eyes glow gold for a moment before he appeared to air dry rapidly.

“Now, I believe I should reward you for your efforts,” he said.